Power of the tongue part 2

All right, so I have yet to see the classroom side of the camera in this room. You can see us, right? I can see you guys, yeah. Yeah, good, good. Good morning. It's a little hard. Faces are small when it's a whole classroom view, so I recognize a few faces in the room, but some of you I can't see at the back, so. But yeah, I should probably introduce myself for those of you who don't know me.

My name is Myles Dredger, and how did we get connected with Holly Hills? That's a bit of a long story, but JD and Les, when they were up here in Canada, were good friends of ours. JD led our Bible study, and then actually they did our premarital counseling. So that's how we got to be quite connected with them. And it was right at the beginning of COVID stuff when they had been up here for a funeral and went back down and churches were closed down.

And JD and I were texting and he said, why don't you join us on Zoom this morning? I hadn't never heard of Zoom before. So we joined in that morning and just stayed stayed connected now for, what is that, over two years? So yeah, and I've mostly been participating in the other class because that was where I knew folks, JD there and stuff.

But Mike said, I want you to take a turn in the other class here. We're planning to come down in August to visit you guys. So Mike said you should get acquainted with the other people. So that's, I guess, part of the reason I'm going to teach a few lessons here in James. So I'm kind of jumping in.

I've gone back, I've listened to a number of the audio recordings from the from this series so far. And I know I was away last week, we had a camp out plan that I was committed to. So I but I went back and I listened to last week's recordings as well. So I think I'm up to up to speed on most of what we're at here. I haven't listened to all the lessons from earlier in James, but but I think I've got a fairly up to speed here on where we're at. So this morning we're looking at James 3, verses 9 through 12. And I'm just going to back up a couple of verses to start in verse 7 to read. So let's read that. James 3. verses 7 through 12.

For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless or uncontrollable evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh."

So, if we look at just the verses 9 through 12, you know, at first glance, this is pretty basic. You know, we could probably summarize this in, you know, one pretty brief kind of a statement and, you know, is there really much more to say here? But I, this always happens to me on further study, I realize there's a lot here. This is not just a brief comment, but I think one of the first things that we could ask is, what is the impression that a lot of people would get from these verses? Just on a first reading, and given the way that most people look at the book of James, to just read those verses, I think we would probably come away with a statement something like this, I need to try to tame my tongue.

And it would be something kind of works-based, something based in self-effort, right? But why isn't that a legitimate interpretation? This is going back to Andrew's lesson from last week, and in verses 7 and 8, why do we know immediately, that that's not a valid interpretation to say that I need to try to tame my tongue. Well, James says nobody can tame it. Exactly. Exactly. It's plain in the context. Nobody can tame it.

And yet, if we were to take what James says here in the next verses, just on their own, say, you know, my brethren, he says, ought not to be this way. He would take that kind of as a scolding and say, oh, I better try to tame it. But we have to take it in context. It can't be done. So, if this isn't about working to tame our tongue, then what's the Holy Spirit communicating to Sir James in this passage?

And that's what we're going to try to answer this morning. So, we'll kind of come back to that question. But I wanted to explore a little bit of the context and then come back to that. I think when we come to a passage of Scripture, there's two keys to understanding it. The first, of course, is to be in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate the text to us. That's key, and that's first.

But secondly, we need to read over and over, forwards and backwards, to gain the context of the passage. I use the word backwards, and I don't mean we need to be able to quote it backwards or read backwards word by word, but something that I do when I get to a passage and I wonder, you know, what's this about? What's the author talking about? Why is this even being spoken about right now?

You know, and this is kind of what happened when I got to these verses here, and I was saying, why does James have such intense focus on the tongue? You know, what's the big deal with the tongue? And, you know, I don't believe that the authors of Scripture are kind of jumping from topic to topic. It's important to see the flow of thought and the connection of things logically.

And so, I took that question, you know, why is James talking about the tongue here, and worked backwards to build the answer to it. So, I wanted to pay particular attention to anything that James said about the tongue or speaking. And if you do that, you'll find that there's a lot in James about speech, about the tongue, and on the first reading, if you're starting at the beginning and reading your way through, you might kind of pass over it as somewhat insignificant, but then you get here to chapter 3, and there's all this content about speech, and you realize this has been something that's been in James' thinking all the way through up to this point. So, if we work backwards from this point, we find that James really started to focus on the tongue in the beginning of Chapter 3, where he introduced teachers. And of course, teachers primarily use their tongue. And then James gives us 12 verses from there all the way to the end of here, dealing with the tongue as an uncontrollable evil. Uncontrollable is the Nestle-Allen Greek interlinear. I like that. I think that lines up with what Andrew was saying last week. The tongue is an uncontrollable evil.

But, so continuing to work backwards, you know, what we see, what comes before this section on the tongues, and And there is a chapter break there, you know, but it's important to understand chapter breaks aren't inspired, right? There is a change. I think it's a good spot for a chapter break if you're going to have one because there's a change in topic.

But let's look at what comes before Chapter 3, the last part of Chapter 2. is talking about faith and works, right? And so there's a change in topic pretty clearly at chapter 3, verse 1, but is there a connection between those two topics? And And I wasn't entirely sure, but kind of continue to work back through the context, and we find that if we work back to chapter 2, verse 12, there's kind of a key phrase that I think shows us the connection.

So, if you look at chapter 2, verse 12, James says, so speak and so act, or so do, depending on your translation, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. So, if you notice in those two words, you have speak and act, and really those are the two topics that he moves into next.

So, just in reverse order. So, from 2.14, just after that, down to the end of chapter 2, James focuses on acts or works. and faith, and then beginning in chapter 3, for the next 12 verses, he focuses on the tongue. So, if we can look at that as kind of an introduction, speaking and acting, or words and works, those are really the two forms of outflow from within us. is what we do and what we say. Those are the two ways that we express or the two forms of outflow from within.

So if we take that as a heading, that what James is talking about here is how we act and then how we speak. as those who are judged by the law of liberty, then we need to understand what it means to be judged by the law of liberty. And now this is a review because Bob covered this on May 7th when I looked back. So, we won't rehash everything from that lesson, but I think the simplest way to understand the law of liberty is a principle of freedom. We know that law can be used as a law code or as a principle. And I think that in context here, it's helpful to understand that there's a meaning of being a principle or the way things work. We're under a principle of freedom.

Bob referenced Galatians 5.1, and I liked the Darby translation of that. Christ has set us free in freedom. Stand fast, therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage. And I think that's one of the ways that Paul expresses this principle. We stand in freedom.

Bob also noted James 1.25, and that's where James first introduces this principle.

In 1.25, James says that if we look intently into the law of liberty or principle of freedom, and are not forgetful hearers but effectual doers, we will be blessed in what we do. And I think that that verse gives us a key as to what James means by the law of liberty, because he says that if we don't forget it, but we remember it, and we are effectual doers on the basis of it, we will be blessed.

Well, I think that we can make a really solid case from Scripture that there's only one basis that any man can be blessed by God. And if we look at Galatians 3, verse 9, Paul says, so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. And then in Romans 4, 6, he says, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. So if there's going to be any sort of blessing from God, it has to be on the basis of righteousness, and that righteousness can only come on the basis of faith apart from works.

So if this law of liberty is going to produce blessing in our lives, then it has to be based on the righteousness that we have by grace through faith. And so I think that what James intends to communicate with the phrase law of liberty or principle of freedom is that Romans, I think it's Romans 5 once, it talks about the grace in which we stand.

In other words, our position in Christ, our union with Christ. And we know that Paul wrote later and he gave us this full revelation of our union with Christ. But that's no less true in James' writing. It's just that James wasn't the one who fully opened up and expounded that doctrine of our union with Christ. And yet his writing and his teaching and instruction is still firmly based on the same principle.

I'm going to slow down there for a second to see if there's any comments at that point or if we're all okay on that. That's just kind of what I wanted to do to go back and build the context for these verses that were in here now. And there's a lot more that we could do to go back and look into all the earlier chapters and verses.

James has a lot to say about the tongue. But this is sort of as far back as I was going to take it to see that, okay, James kind of has a heading here that he kind of shows us he's going to talk about how we act and how we speak. And that's what we're in now. And just to have in mind here as we look at this, I think we could say it like this, we're to operate in our speech as those who operate under a principle of liberty or a principle of freedom. So that's where we're going to come back to that a little bit.

Sometimes I move too fast and don't give room for comment. Yeah, that's a lot of information. you know I I keep I keep thinking Andrew stimulated this thought that it is just about as easy to control the tongue as it is to control our sin nature you know and they're both impossible the sin nature or the law wasn't wasn't given to control the sin nature, it was to inflame sin nature and does the same thing to the tongue. They're both impossible to control. Yeah, yeah.

And I think that's where, here, if we understand this law of liberty, it's not, that almost sounds like an oxymoron, right, if we're thinking of it in a certain way. But if we understand, right, to say, oh, you know, the law, you know, is something that binds you. But freedom is something that, you know, unbinds you.

But if we understand that this is a new principle, this is a different operating principle. It's not law of, you know, to, like you said, Jim, there, it just stimulates us in nature. This is a new principle, a new operating system. And it's a principle of grace, and that's the principle by which we speak. Yeah. I'm just let's see here. I had one other little little bit here, but let me see.

Just talking about the being, the mouth that defiles, I'm going to kind of skip over that, but I think I could briefly say that it's an interesting, I caught this because Andrew taught it clearly on the word, the tongue defiles the man. And I noticed then that in chapter 1 verse 27, it's because Andrew said that that's the word stained. And I realized that's the same word that James uses in chapter 1 verse 27, to keep oneself unstained by the world. And then here we see that it's what proceeds out of your mouth, it stains a man.

And so we are defiled from without by the world and we are defiled from within. So, there are two defiling sources, although one of those is much closer to us, and that's the one we're dealing with here and now. It's what's in the heart. But let's move into looking at today's verses. I'm going to read chapter 3, verses 9 and 10. unpack that a little bit. So this is NASB.

With it, the tongue, we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. The first thing I want to notice is that James uses the personal plural, we. He includes himself in this. And if we're honest, we'll all include ourselves in this.

We bless the Lord and Father, and that's from the word eulogio. And of course, we all recognize the word eulogy in that. And eulogy means to speak well of. Whether he was a good man or not, everyone speaks well of him at his funeral. And that's... Amen. So, you know, so with our tongue, we speak wonderful things about God. And then with the same tongue, we curse men. And the word there is, let's see if I can pronounce it, katar ometha, something like that. To wish anyone evil or ruin. To wish anyone evil or ruin.

And I wrote down here, what James is describing here is the average Sunday morning. We get together and sing praises to God, and then we all visit in the lobby and wish ruin on Joe Biden or Justin Trudeau. And I wrote that down, and then I realized, I don't want to make this a joke. I mean, although it's true, I mean, we shouldn't curse our political leaders.

But the tongue is a deadly weapon. And as Andrew said last week, you know, it's a hell-raising hellfire. I thought that was pretty appropriate. And what comes out of our mouth is very important because it has the ability to speak truth or lies. It has the ability to speak life or to spew hate. And I'm sure that many of us have those individuals in our lives who have committed horrific evil against us. to one degree or another. And we may go for years thinking that we're justified in saying all kinds of things against them. You know, I wish he was dead. You know, things like that. And we say these kinds of things against people created in God's image, just like us. People for whom Christ died, just like us.

And I have to admit that I've been defiled by a murderous tongue. And the words that come out of our mouths in split seconds can cause destruction and can cause pain for years and years. You know, something happens, someone says something to us, and we react in a split second, and words almost instinctively flow out of our mouth, and they're deadly.

And James, speaking to believers, says, my brethren, these things ought not to be this way. This is something that's for believers. We do this as believers in Christ. We can use our tongues this way. I was saying how indirectly he's building a good case that the believer, who is a saved person, actually has a nature which is uncontrollable.

He has a fallen nature, which he still has, but it's uncontrollable. And only God, we know from other paths, only God can control that nature. Only the Holy Spirit can control that nature. So he doesn't say it, but he gives you the evidence about your life, that your tongue is uncontrollable. And you say, well, what's controlling the tongue? Well, God is not controlling your tongue. You're controlling your tongue and it's your fallen nature.

So he's indirectly building that case. He doesn't say it, but he's, which I, this time through, it's kind of interesting that that really comes out clear that over and over again, he's building the case that you have two aspects of your life and it shouldn't be that way.

That should not be the case. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's really interesting. We're going to come back to that phrase there, these things ought not to be this way. And I think that's really important. We're going to get some good kind of clarity on that.

But I think it is really interesting to note that as much as a lot of people come to the Book of James, And they think, well, James is giving tests or something along those lines for whether you're a real believer or whether you have real faith or genuine faith or however they want to express that. And yet, what James is clearly saying here is that this is me as well.

You know, he says, we bless and we curse. James never says that a real believer doesn't sin. Amen. But he, without going into the same kind of detail that Paul does in laying out, you know, the old man, the new man, and all of this stuff, it's still very clear in his writing, right? And that's what we see in these next verses. He talks about this strangeness of the human heart. So let's read verses 11 and 12.

Does a fountain send out from the same opening, both fresh and bitter? And water is supplied by the translators. Does a fountain send out from the same opening, both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives? Or a vine produce figs? nor can salt water produce fresh.

And James, I love his word pictures all throughout chapter three. I didn't count up how many we've seen already, but they're very effective and clearly illustrate. And it's so simple, you know, to see what he's getting at here. And I think we could maybe say it like this. Nothing else in creation operates like the tongue. There's nothing like it. And actually, we see this principle in Genesis.

Everything produces after its kind. Right? You know, if it's an apple tree, you're going to get apples. If it's a wheat field, you're going to get wheat. But the tongue is an uncontrollable evil. You know, the tongue is like a spring that you never know what's going to come out of it. Right? Is it going to be fresh water? Is it going to be poison? And...

I love what James has done here because it's almost like it's Romans 7 in a nutshell, you know. James applies the truths that we get later in Romans specifically to the tongue here. Like I say, he doesn't really get into what the two sources are the way Paul does, but as believers, we all have two distinct sources that supply our tongue. And the tongue is almost like an open window on those natures. You know, I think of it like the tongue is sort of directly linked to the nature that's controlling. Whichever nature is in control at any given moment is the one that is supplying the tongue.

Amen. So, I think I have enough time for it here. I wanted to compare what James is saying here to what Jesus said because I realize that James draws very heavily from the words of Jesus. I'm going to read them. Let me give you the three references and then in Luke 6, verses 43 to 45. I'm sorry I don't have the PowerPoint for this because it would have been easier for you to, but if you get the references and then if you're not able to flip there quick enough, you can look at them later, but Luke 6, 43 to 45, and then Matthew 12, 33 to 37, and then Matthew 15, 18 to 20. So, you'll notice that in those Matthew ones, he's picking up a theme again and speaking about it again. So, I'm going to read Luke and then those two Matthew passages. And we're just going to take it really quick like a fire hose, but we want to get the thrust, sort of the gist of what Jesus was teaching, and then we're going to compare that to what James is saying. So, Luke 6, 43 to 45.

For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor on the other hand a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth what is good. And the evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth what is evil.

For the mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. Jim, I think you mentioned that last week. The mouth is connected to the heart. It speaks from what fills the heart. In Matthew 12, 33-37, either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good, and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." And then Matthew 15, 18 to 20. But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. You can see the clear connections to what James has said. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." And we kind of know the context that Jesus is speaking into, but you can see very clearly the connection.

James is talking about murderous words. We'll get to that in Chapter 4. and this is what defiles the man, what comes out of what's in the heart, and that this is not consistent with what we see in the created order, you know, do we pick fruit from thorn bushes and so forth. So, I just want to, we're not going to go into really much detail at all, but after reading those passages and knowing the way that most teachers handle the book of James. Is there any wonder why people come away with a very works-based Christianity?

Because if you just take those things and don't dig in and you don't then discover what the difference is between law and grace, that the church is something very distinct from what Jesus was speaking to in Israel, you're going to come away thinking, this is something I've got to do.

I've got to quit being the evil man and start being the good man. You notice that Jesus used that. He said the good man brings out of the good in his heart, you know, that which is good. The evil man brings out of that which is evil. So we automatically, just given our sin natures, begin to think, well, I'm going to have to do good then. I'm going to have to become the good man and tame my tongue, you know. But what Jesus, I think if we really understand what Jesus is getting at, is that you can't, you know, if you try to do this, you will fail and fail. Jim, did you have a comment? I thought I saw it. I have a comment. Go for it. Yeah, I think that James does such a great job of further defining many of the things that Christians do wrong.

And what subtlety here is that he doesn't necessarily point us to our new life in Christ Jesus, the glorified Lord, and that's the answer. It's not us trying to bridle our tongue. It's really living in Christ Jesus, walking in the Spirit. And when you're walking in the Spirit, your tongue is bridled because it's coming out of that fountain. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I think that the clear similarity between Jesus and James is that the fruit of the heart, the words, are always consistent with the source. The words that come out of the mouth are always consistent with the source that they're coming out of. But what James speaks to that Jesus doesn't mention. Notice what James says, with the same tongue, we both bless and curse. That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, the good man speaks good, the evil man speaks evil. But now James is telling us that, by the way, you speak both. Two natures. That's the difference.

That was not a reality when Jesus was speaking. Nobody had two natures. Everybody had only a sin nature. It's not until the church began that there was this new creation and that people began to function in this world with two natures. You know? And it was a new, and we're still grappling with that 2,000 years later. Well, also, Miles, the other point is that most people don't realize as believers, it's not taught well, that they have two natures.

So therefore, they're in good shape. They're trying to control by the old man their sin nature, and they can't do it, even though they're a born-again Christian. They don't know the remedy. They don't see that the remedy is understanding that you have an old nature. Understanding that God has given you a new nature and that His Holy Spirit is the one that's to direct your tongue and direct your life.

Paul delineated those two things in Galatians 5.17. Exactly. You know, the flesh and the spirit. The flesh desires what is against the spirit and the spirit desires what is against the flesh. These are opposed to each other, so you can't do what you want to do. Right. That's right.

But then in 2 Corinthians 3.17, he says, The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Right. That's right. You've got to focus on the Spirit. Well, the information is there.

You know, the scriptures are there, but it's just unfortunate. not more bodies of believers that see these truths and are willing to teach them. That's what's sad. I think what James, James is kind of laying down certain things almost in seed form. And we have to remember this book was written early compared to Paul.

And yet it's here, you know. One thing I wanted to point out is that in chapter three, verse two, James says that if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. I think we need to understand that Christ is the perfect man. And as believers, we have the life of Christ. That's the key. I have just a few kind of closing things to kind of try to pull some of this together. On that note, that Christ was a perfect man, I really appreciated what Andrew shared last week from F.W. Grant just commenting on Isaiah. I'll just read a portion of it.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was perfect master of himself under all circumstances. And this is the same nature that indwells each one of us as believers. We have the very nature of Christ as our own. And at the same time, we have this murderous, deadly old man in us.

But I wanted to come back, I know we're just about at time, but I wanted to come back to that phrase earlier where James says, these things ought not to be. And the word ought carries the idea of a moral obligation, but the word translated ought is cray. Most translations do render it as ought or should. Of course it's in the negative, so should not or ought not. But the Nestle-Allen Greek Interlinear rendered it as necessary. And I thought that was really interesting. So, looking it up, I mean, it can go either way, but notice the difference if we read it from, this is a slight variation of Nestle Allen, just to put the word order in a more smooth format for English, but this is what you get of the Greek interlinear. Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, it is not necessary for these things to be so. That hits you a lot differently than saying it ought not to be, doesn't it? It is not necessary for these things to be so.

And that's where it comes back to, I think, and why I spent time in the beginning on the principle of liberty or the principle of freedom. Because we are free to walk in the liberty of the life of Christ all day, every day. We're free to do that. Will we always do it? No. And James isn't saying that we always will, because he includes himself in this, you know, we curse with our tongue. But even though we're not going to have perfect mastery over our tongue, that's not the point, that's not the goal. We are, however, free to have Christ's life lived out through us every moment.

And He, Christ, does have perfect mastery over His tongue. So coming back to the question that I said at the beginning we were going to try to answer at the end, I said that if this isn't about working to tame our tongues, what is the Holy Spirit communicating through James here? And this is how I tried to put it into one sentence. We will not get control of our tongue by trying to master it.

We can have perfect control of it when we walk by faith in any trial or circumstance, when we trust that his life is our life. And this is the first time I've really mentioned, I think, trials, but we do know that that is the theme of James overall. And if there's any time when it's more difficult to say the right thing or to tame your tongue, it's when you're in those trials, extremely difficult challenges and trials of life. If we can learn that we're not to control our tongue, we're to rest in His power, His ability to control or to produce, I should say, to produce His life through us. Then and only then will our words be what they ought to be.

Any comments before we close in prayer? I just really powered through that. So if we don't rest in Him, it is impossible to control the tongue. That's exactly it. Another way to say it in three words, abide in Christ. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, right?

Absolutely. Miles, that law of liberty that you're talking about, and that's liberty or the freedom from sin, too, I think is in there. Yeah. Not a liberty to Christ, but freedom from all this that he's talking about. That's kind of cool. Yeah, that's good. That's really good, Andrew. Thank you. All right. Well, I'll close in prayer there.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the liberty, the freedom in which we stand in Christ. Freedom from the defiling old nature, even though it still indwells us and we still often walk according to it. But Lord, we know that we have this new nature by grace and that you are Uh, ready and, uh... waiting to produce that life through us as we just trust You to do it. And Lord, we pray that today we would just continue to learn that new life source that we have in Christ, and that we would just enjoy walking in the grace and freedom of that, and that You would manifest Your Son through us. And we just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.